PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Taliban gunmen attacked a school van in northwestern Pakistan on Tuesday, killing four children and the driver in an assault they said was carried out to punish local tribesman for resisting the insurgent movement.

At least 14 other children and two female teachers were wounded in the attack in Matani on the outskirts of the main northwestern city of Peshawar, said police officer Ejaz Khan.

BEIRUT (AP) — A barrage of gunfire by security forces that left residents cowering in their homes killed at least nine people and wounded several others Wednesday in Homs, a hotbed of opposition to President Bashar Assad’s autocratic regime, activists and residents said. Two others were shot dead during raids in Sarameen, in northern Syria.

In a step the opposition says shows the regime is intractable, a planned visit by the Arab League secretary general Wednesday to push Assad to make major concessions to defuse the 6-month-old crisis was called off at the last minute at the government’s request.

A pair of suicide bombers attacked a top army officer in Pakistan’s southwestern city of Quetta on Wednesday, missing him but killing his wife. At least 22 others died, including several guards, a senior officer and two children, officials said.

Police said they were investigating whether the strike was in revenge for the recent arrests in Quetta of three top al-Qaida suspects, an operation that was assisted by the CIA.

Syrian tanks stormed two northwestern towns near the border with Turkey on Wednesday, expanding a military offensive to crush protests, local residents said a day after Ankara pressed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end killings of civilians.

Syrian forces killed at least five civilians during raids on villages around the besieged city of Hama on Tuesday, broadening a 10 day offensive on the city to nearby countryside, local activists said.